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October 22, 1968
Dear Mr. Buckley,
I don't have the slightest idea about what the future...if any...of the Democratic Party in the United States might be.
I do know that in this section of the country, there are no "Democratic parties" as you might know of them in New York state. Instead, we have Governor's parties, headed and directed by whatever man who calls himself a Democrat happens to be in power at the time.
The Southern task, therefore, is building a party of some kind, calling it either "Democratic" or "Freedom Democrats" or whatever.
In Georgia, a first step toward that goal has been taken. There is a statewide organization here called the Democratic Forum. It was this group that called the convention that elected the challenge delegation that went to the Chicago convention.
My hope is that this group can become a party, or more correctly, an organized group of Georgians who place a high priority on electoral politics a great deal to the left of the organized electoral politics so common to this region.
That process, if it is to be successful, will take nearly eight or ten years, I believe, and a lot of hard work and a lot of money
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Mr. Jim Buckley
October 22, 1968
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Black people in Georgia are a state-wide minority, although we are a majority in some counties and will be a majority in Atlanta within five years. In these areas I would favor all-black (or at worst, majority black ((political organizations that would effectively, democratically direct the political thrust of a group of people for whom politics means both street improvements and civilizing the police as well as a chance to influence and direct policy making on a city, county and state level.
For this election, in November, what strikes me as the biggest difference between Southern and Northern outlooks is that most Kennedy-McCarthy supporters I know in this region are hoping for, if not working for, the election of Vice-President Humphrey because of their fear of the Strom Thurmond influence in a Nixon government, while their Northern counterparts are mostly not participating in the November election on a presidential level.
Those of us here, of course, are subjected to much abuse by those persons unfortunate enough not to have to live here. We are called "shills" and "prostitutes" by our Northern brothers and sisters, which is an indication, I believe, now that the sitin demonstrations and Freedom Rides have paled and voter registration efforts lost their excitement that there isn't much interest up yonder in us folks down here.
But, that's life.
Sincerely,
Julian Bond
Jim Buckley
New York Free Press
200 West 72nd Street
New York, N. Y. 10023